This week I started a diet in an attempt to lose some weight before I go on my cruise & I also started to try to walk a bit more so that I can manage to walk around a bit more on some of the excursions I have planned.

Week 37 of 2023.

Monday, 11th September.

I woke up at around 7 am today, & had a coffee,  & then sat down at my computer & started to work on my website. At around 8 am I had a message from my friend Jacqui that she may be a bit late for our coffee meet-up. This didn't matter as I had to go to the optician opposite the cafe, where we were meeting, to try to get some new reading glasses.

I arrived at the optician's just after it opened at 9:45 am. I went in & I was immediately seen by the lady working there. My glasses couldn't be repaired & I had to buy a new pair. I had an eye test & my eyesight had worsened slightly & a new prescription set of glasses would have to be made. After sitting for the eye tests & being measured for a new set of glasses, I picked a frame style. I decided against varifocal glasses as they were more expensive & I have gotten used to just looking over the top of my glasses anyway. The new set of glasses cost me €175 so I hope this set lasts me a long time.

When I left the optician, I had a look at the Parking Cafe for Jacqui but couldn't see her yet, so I went into Economy Cash to get some shopping. I only wanted a couple of things but I was looking at the shop made chicken nuggets, which looked lovely, the lady working there offered me a 30% discount on them so I bought ½ kilo of them. Next to the nuggets, there was what looked like a chicken stir fry mix which looked good, so I bought ½ kilo of that as well. I collected a few other things in the shop, put them in the box on my disability scooter & then went back to the Café outside.

As I went to sit at a table, Jacqui arrived & we sat down for a drink. We sat chatting for around 40 minutes before I headed home to put the shopping I had bought in the fridge & then went along the length of the promenade on my way to meet Martin at midday. Aria had gone back to school this week so our office meeting was a bit quieter today. We were joined by Dave for a while & we swapped tall stories until around 2 pm when we all left to go home.

I went straight home & when I got home I used up the last bit of bread I had in my apartment & had two bacon sandwiches for my lunch. I want to try to lose some weight before my cruise so I am going to try going on the Atkins diet again. It has worked in the past & I also hope the extra protein will help my leg heal up before the cruise. This will mean cutting out bread & beer which I fear are the things that help maintain my weight & ample beer belly.

In the afternoon I try to do some more family tree research but find it difficult to balance the broken set of reading glasses on my nose & after around a couple of hours I give up & spend the evening watching television.

Tuesday, 12th September.

I had a very fitful sleep again last night. I had several very vivid dreams waking in strange homes with a mixture of old & new friends around me, walking through strange new places, & trying to rescue old friends from difficult situations. I will have to get a book about dreams to see what they all mean.

When I got up at around 7:30 am, I got myself a coffee, tied my broken reading glasses around my head & read my messages on my computer. 

I had intended to make a butternut squash soup today, but when I looked in the fridge, I had a few extra vegetables there, that would soon have to be thrown out if I didn't use them, so I added them to it & made a very brightly coloured vegetable soup. I finished making it around lunchtime & had two bowls of it because it tasted so good. Now that the weather isn't so warm I will probably start doing more cooking & adding more of my recipes to my website. There was enough soup left to put five large servings, into glass-lidded bowls to freeze. This will help me over the next couple of months while I try to lose weight before my cruise to Brazil.

In the afternoon & evening, I spent time adding newspaper clips from a court case that some of my ancestors were in, onto my website. Just as the Scotland vs. England football match started tonight, I stopped working on my website & sat down to watch the game. It was quite an entertaining game in which  England won 3-1, Scotlands' only goal came from an own goal by Harry Maguire. Quite why Gareth Southgate keeps insisting on putting Maguire in the team is beyond me, he doesn't play for his club team, Manchester United. Manchester United tried to sell him this year & he refused to leave them. Probably because he is on such large wages & feels he is better off turning up for training & collecting his money each week. I can't say I blame him, I would do the same thing, but it is annoying when he gets picked over better players who play every week for their club teams. In tonight's game, he was rewarded for his own goal by being made captain when Harry Kane was substituted, a ridiculous decision by Gareth Southgate.

Wednesday, 13th September.

I woke up at about 7:15 am today. The daylight hadn't quite started to brighten the sky but it wasn't long before the birds singing in the trees outside heralded the rising of the sun. I worked on my website for a while & hoped that the lady in the opticians would call me earlier rather than later today, to tell me my new reading glasses had arrived & I could collect them. Holding my glasses onto my face with a bit of cord & trying to balance them precariously on my nose is very annoying but I can't do anything without them.

I cook myself a Keto-friendly breakfast, I have two Cumberland sausages & 2 rashers of bacon, cooked in my air fryer with a scrambled egg. Once the breakfast had settled I set off for a walk at around 10:50 am, before it got too hot. I walked along the promenade to La Encarnacion then turned & walked through the shops behind it to the Estribor Café next to the town hall. I stopped at the Café & sat down to rest & to have a coffee. After 10 minutes, I continued my walk back home along the main road through Los Alcazares. It had taken me a while & I was puffed out when I got back but I will keep going for as long as my knee holds out, in an attempt to lose weight & hopefully make my my legs stronger before I go to Brazil.

After resting for a while I type up more news stories from newspaper clippings for my website. All of them are for the same court case in November 1923 in which some of my ancestors are being tried for fraud. At about 2 pm I stop & have some chicken nuggets for my lunch & when I have finished I walk around to the local rubbish bin with some homemade shelving & some other junk that I want to get rid of. After dumping the items next to the bin, so that the man who lives next to the bin, can collect them without jumping in it, I walk home. The man that lives there must watch everybody who walks past the bin because as soon as you drop anything off he is out of his house inspecting it & taking it home.

This afternoon I sat down on the sofa & quickly fell asleep. I had a half-hour kip before getting back up. I went into my bedroom & changed the linen sheets on my bed. Once they were changed I sorted through the clean bed sheets I have & found some that will fit the bed in the spare bedroom. Once I had found sheets that fit, I put them on the bed. At least now if any friends or family want to visit the room is ready for them & I won't have to make the bed in a hurry.

The lady at the optician said my new reading glasses would be available today & that she would ring me when I could collect them. I didn't receive a phone call so tomorrow morning I will walk to the optician to see where they are. In the evening I continued to work on my website until I went to bed at about 11 pm.

Thursday, 14th September.

Unable to sleep last night, I got up at 1 am & did some more work on my website until around 2:30 am. I then went back to bed, waking up again at around 8:15 am. I got myself a coffee, checked my computer for any messages & got myself a protein shake with a banana & blueberries in it for breakfast, before walking to the opticians at Rio Nalon.

I walked to the opticians & waited a short while while the lady running the shop dealt with someone else. When she had finished with her other customers she asked me how she could help & I told her I had come to collect my glasses that should have been ready yesterday. She looked in lots of drawers in the front of the store & at the back of the store & told me they hadn't arrived. I asked when they would arrive & she rang the lab & was told maybe next Tuesday. I explained that she had promised them yesterday & told her I wanted to cancel the order as I needed to get them for work. She cancelled the order, made a refund to my credit card & I left the shop. As I left the shop I remembered that I had a problem with the shop the last time I bought glasses here & had to wait a lot longer than I had been promised to get my glases.

As I walked home I decided I would have to get a temporary pair of cheap reading glasses from the Chino shop near my home. I was surprised when I went in that the reading glasses seemed to be a lot more robust than they used to be & I picked a pair that looked & felt very similar to the pair I had ordered for €175 at the opticians. I was able to read the labelling in the store & the screen on my mobile phone with them on, so I bought them. They came with a cloth wipe & cost me €5, I know they are not great for my eyes but they will be perfect until I get a new pair ordered from a different optician.

I continued my walk home & settled down to work on my computer. It was nice to be able to type with both hands & not to be having to hold my glasses on with one hand. For lunch, I had a jacket potato with crab salad in it. I pottered about a bit before sitting down & taking a nap for an hour.

This afternoon & evening I carried on adding details to people in the genealogy section of my website. I stopped at around 9 pm to watch television & had another protein shake for my evening meal.

Friday, 15th September.

I woke up at around 6 am, turned over & went back to sleep, waking up again at around 8 am. When I got up I got myself a pot of green tea with jasmine & peach. As the tea was brewing in the pot I air-fried a bit of bacon, two sausages & made some scrambled eggs. I sat at my computer ate my breakfast & relaxed until around 10 am when I went out for a walk along the promenade.

I walked along the promenade until I got to La Encarnacion & then turned to go through the shops to the Estribor cafe where I sat & had a coffee. I read my Kindle for a while & then continued to walk back to my apartment, weaving through the back streets of Los Alcazares. Once back at my apartment, I worked on my website till around 3 pm before having a late lunch of a jacket potato, one half with crab salad & the other half with mushroom pate.

Once I had finished my lunch I did a bit more work on my website before having an afternoon nap. This evening I again worked on my website until I went to bed around 11 pm.

Saturday, 16th September.

I slept well last night & woke up around 8:15 am. I got up & took my tablets before getting some water & checking my computer for messages. Around 10 am, I had a message, from my friend Tony to let me know he was at Buena Vista restaurant & asked if I wanted to join him for a coffee. I walked around to see him & we sat chatting for a while before we both headed off.

I walked along the promenade to La Encarnacion then turned up to have a coffee & a rest at the Estribor cafe next to the town hall. I sat reading my Kindle for a while & once I had got my breath back & finished my coffee I continued along the main road back to my apartment, getting home at about 12:30 pm. I was very hot & sticky & got myself a cold drink before sitting down to do some work on my computer before I lay on my sofa to rest my leg & to watch today's football matches on the television.

The afternoon & evening was spent watching the day's Premier League football matches on the television.

Sunday, 17th September.

I slept well again last night & woke up at about 8 am today. Once I had woken up properly I put some washing in the washing machine, before I checked my computer for messages. For breakfast I got myself a protein shake with blueberries & a banana, it tasted fantastic.

At around 10 am I went to get some shopping. I knew that the Mercadona store was closed so I went to the Economy Cash store. Unfortunately, now the summer season is over, that was also closed. I left there & went to the Dialprix store near me. I don't like the store much but it is okay for a few odd bits. I got some milk & some tortilla wraps & went back to my apartment.

Whilst at home I Skyped my sister & had a chat with her. We had a nice chat & she sent me details of some homes she & Brett were looking at in Los Alcazares. One of the homes in particular looked nice & I thought I knew where it was so once I had finished talking to Karen I walked around to the house to have a look. It does look nice but there were no for sale signs on it. I wondered if it had already been sold, if I had got the wrong house, or if it was still for sale but just didn't have any signs up. I walked back to my apartment & by the time I got back the heat & humidity had gotten to me a bit & I was puffing a bit so I had a rest before getting myself some dinner.

For dinner, I had a chicken stir fry mix in a tortilla wrap. I had bought the chicken mix & put it in the freezer earlier in the week. It cooked straight from the freezer in no time & was very nice, I can recommend it.

This afternoon I watched the Bournemouth v Chelsea football match, which was a 0-0 draw, before watching the Everton v Arsenal match. Arsenal were by far the better team but Everton defended very well. The game ended, Everton 0, Arsenal 1. Leandro Trossard scored a superb goal to give Arsenal their first win at Goodison Park in 6 seasons.

I remembered the washing, in the washing machine, at about 10 pm & took it out & put it all away before having an early night.